Immunomodulatory Effect of a Polyherbal Formulation (Imusil) on Cyclophosphamide Induced Experimental Animal Model.

OBJECTIVE

In the present study, we investigated the immunomodulatory effect of a polyherbal formulation referred to as Imusil (IM) on cyclophosphamide (CP) induced immunosuppression model.

METHODS

CP induced experimental animal model was used for evaluating the immunomodulatory effect of IM. For the study, animals were divided into four groups. Group I is served as the normal control, group II is treated only with CP, group III is treated with the standard drug, levamisole and group IV is treated with IM. The experimental duration was 30 days. At the end of the study, we had evaluated various parameters such as immune organ index, liver marker enzymes, antioxidants, haematological analysis, Th1/Th2 cytokine balance and humoral immune responses were examined using ELISA kits, T-lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry, and histopathological analysis of the liver, spleen and thymus by H&E staining.

RESULTS

The results obtained from the study revealed that the treatment of immunosuppressed animals with IM significantly (p<0.05) reversed the immune response in a positive manner. Treatment with IM properly shields the immune organs and triggers the cell-mediated and humoral immune responses accordingly. Thus, no significant changes were observed in the haematological parameters. Moreover, IM supplementation helps to boost up the antioxidant activity, thereby preventing oxidative stress-mediated damage, and also protects the liver from the toxicity induced by CP.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that IM has the ability to counteract the immunosuppressive effect of chemotherapeutic drugs by stimulating the immune system, along with its potent antioxidant and hepatoprotective properties.